The maintenance of white heteronormativity in porn films that use Australia as an exotic location

ABSTRACT

Exotic locations are used in pornography to generate distance between the audience and the explicit content. The ‘pornoexotic’ maintains white heteronormativity through presenting the exotic as a zone of anomie, where taboo desires can be satisfied. This article examines Australia as a unique pornoexotic location through four pornographic feature films. The Australian pornoexotic functions to geographically and symbolically distance the viewer while simultaneously presenting bodies and desires that do not deviate from white, heteroporn standards. It achieves this through a focus on the landscape, through the character arc of a coerced outsider and through the symbolic investment in but absence of Aboriginal people. The invisibility of Aboriginal people in porn can be contextualized through the ongoing neocolonial measures restricting Aboriginal people’s access to pornography. This article examines one of the most recent neocolonial measures regulating Aboriginal sexuality – the Northern Territory Emergency Response, which banned pornography in a number of Aboriginal communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Heteroporn
• Aboriginal people
• exotic
• Northern Territory Emergency Response
• colonialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The legacy of the conflation of the exotic and erotic can be located in postcolonial and feminist critiques that describe non-pornographic representations of otherness as pornographic, using ‘the pornographic’ as an analytical framework to denote exposure, exploitation and manipulation (Nash 2014, 7). While these critiques directly address ongoing colonization of representation, particularly of black women’s bodies, the appeal to pornography in such a way does not reflect the complex and often contradictory affects of pornography.

2. Production and distribution of pornography laws differ from state to state in Australia. There are also legislative differences between states and territories. The Australian Capital Territory is the most permissive of the states and territories in Australia regarding the production and distribution of pornography.

3. There are more contemporary pornographic films that are close to this category, such as Mr Nasty’s Aussie Fuckfest Canberra (2007) and Aussie Fuckfest Gold Coast (2007), but these have minimal narrative and largely improvised dialogue, and represent the shift towards micro-budget, point of view and gonzo pornography. Michelle Flynn’s Momentum Vol 1–3 (2015) is part of a slow return to narrative films set in Australia. The Momentum series has won international recognition and is part of the ethical, authentic porn movement. Prior to this, Anna Brownfield released The Band (2008) and Ms Naughty released The Fantasy Project (2014); both of these films are feature length, shot in Australia and part of an Australian feminist porn movement. Hustler’s The Cougar Hunter, directed by Jonathan Morgan (2008), clearly refers to Australia but was entirely produced and shot in America. I will be referring to some of these films in passing because they are related to but not exemplars of the Australian pornoexotic.

4. The films are not indicative of contemporary heteroporn produced in Australia. The films were chosen because they represent clear examples of the Australian pornoexotic.

5. This is not to say that there are no Aboriginal people working in the sex industry or in porn. This is an issue of how and why Aboriginal people are identified (or not identified) in porn.

6. For a comparison, the search term ‘African American’ produces 558 results on Youporn and 1038 results on Pornhub.

7. I have found some references in films that were not the focus of this article; for instance, for Jodie Moore: AKA Filthy Whore (anon. n.d.), the blurb describes Jodie More as ‘enjoy[ing] being gang fucked by Aborigines in the Outback’. However, this film is not produced in Australia and there is no reference to Aboriginality in the film itself. A similar racial slur occurs in The Cougar Hunter (Morgan 2008) where the Steve Irwin parody states ‘I’ve got to tell you my heart is beating like an Abo’s drum’. King (2005) discusses Aboriginal characters in the porn films Grand Prix Fever (De Renzy 1992), Jackaroos (Bjorn n.d.) and Manly Beach (Bjorn 1991).

8. The legislation that extends some of the measures does not make any reference to the ban on pornography (Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012); however, appeals on the ban are made on a community-by-community basis to the Minster for Family Affairs, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment [Restoration of Racial Discrimination Act] Bill 2009, Senate, Canberra, March 2010).

9. Pornography was listed alongside poor health, alcohol, drug abuse, gambling, unemployment, poor education and housing.

10. Further, the very fact that such a ban was possible underlines the severe disadvantages of these communities, because the ban was only effective because of the general lack of access to the internet. If Aboriginal communities had access to the internet outside of publicly surveyed institutions, it would have made the ban a farce. Further to this, the report suggests that adults watched pornography in view of children, which the report itself states is a result of overcrowding of housing (Davis and Larkin 2011, 65).